Vol 51 No 23 | ZAMBIACHINA Mining for votes 19th November 2010 Firebrand politician Michael Sata’s anti-Chinese rhetoric is helping the opposition’s campaign ahead of next year’s elections Opposition politicians and trades unionists have gone on the offensive since Chinese managers at the Collum coal mine shot protesting Zambian workers on 21 October. The charge is...
Vol 51 No 23 | ZAMBIA Taking on the journalists 19th November 2010 President Rupiah Banda and his Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) are struggling to control the mass media before next year’s general elections. The private media, especially the popular...
Vol 51 No 23 | MALAWI Thank you for smoking 19th November 2010 African producers could be penalised in talks this week on the Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC) in Punta del Este, Uruguay, on proposals to ban additives in...
Vol 51 No 23 | NAMIBIA Culpable contracts 19th November 2010 Oil-trader Glencore International fears Namibia may wish to review its lengthy 2007 contract to provide half of refined petroleum imports until 2014. Namibia’s dollar is tied to the...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 1 | MADAGASCAR Chinese trains for TGV 18th November 2010 The latest deals mark the government’s biggest turn towards the East since the political crisis and subsequent reduction in international support President Andry Rajoelina – nicknamed ‘TGV’ after France’s high-speed train – wants to leave a train service as his legacy when he steps down from power in 2011....
Vol 4 (AAC) No 1 | ZIMBABWEASIA Doing the Charamba 18th November 2010 One consortium gains, another loses: ministers will decide which lucky locals can partner with international investors in the indigenisation scheme George Charamba is President Robert Mugabe’s official spokesman and information supremo. The job description is not well defined and Charamba feels free to ennunciate what he thinks policy...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 1 | TANZANIAZAMBIACHINA TAZARA troubles 18th November 2010 China’s flagship African railroad project continues to lose money, and Chinese management may be brought in to avoid throwing more good money after bad. Built in the 1970s,...
Vol 51 No 22 | ANGOLA Daylight on Dos Santos 5th November 2010 The new constitution offers the President another twelve years in power but breaking with tradition, he is now actively campaigning for election For the first time in his 31 years in power, Angola’s President, José Eduardo dos Santos, gave a State of the Nation address to the National Assembly in...
Vol 51 No 22 | ANGOLACONGO-KINSHASA At stake: oil, migrants and gemstones 5th November 2010 Behind the obligatory shows of unity between the governments of Angola and Congo-Kinshasa lurk serious disagreements over the frontiers dividing the oil fields straddling the two countries, diamond...
Vol 51 No 22 | SOUTH AFRICA Party unity trumps national reforms 5th November 2010 To placate the one-time friends who have fallen out with him, the President reshuffles his hand of party cards A second term in office is President Jacob Zuma’s main aim. To see that he gets it, his cabinet reshuffle on 31 October seemed designed to win allies...